Tuesday, 31 December 2013

It is still Tuesday so I can still share my latest layout with you all - my last of 2013! Well, it is my Blog and so my Rulz anyhoo!

Here it is........

I took this photo on 19 December 2010. Fortunately I had already printed is as my relatively new printer is now kaput!!! Not happy as it is only just out of warranty. Apparently it needs a new printer head - Cost £25 + £7 postage. Cost of new printer - £40 ish. Guess I wont be replacing the head as I got through more ink in its short lifetime than any other printer I know of! Hurrumpf! So I guess I shall be using up some of my plethora of photos already printed in 2014 until I buy a new printer. I got the idea for the title from a comment left on FB when this photo was on there by LLJ - "You have your own Narnia!".

For this layout I used some Bazzill card with some Grace Taylor paper for the spotty and punched the corners with a MS punch and backed with white card from the Snippets box. The red card is Bazzill again punched with the MS PATP snowflake punch and yes, I did punch the sides also but then covered it with paper - doh! I punched some black card Snippets with another MS punch and attached top and bottom of the green Kaisercraft paper with a small strip of white cardstock.

The snowflakes are all cut using Spellbinders dies using Snippets. I decided to add a mixture of red buttons to the centres. The top right have some TH chit chat stickers.

The letters are all cut from Snippets of card on my Cricut using Candy fonts and then stickled over.

I actually dug some washi tape out. I have several different ones but don't use them very often.

My aim now for 2014 (I don't make Resolutions as they are most often broken) is to not just stuff my Snippets away in the Snippets draw but to make a couple of cards using them. So here are two....

The coloured panels are made from using the papers out of the bottom of my spray box. No idea exactly what created them but they have a fabulous shimmer. I stamped the cards using two TH Grunge stamps, the HB stamp was a present from Kim when she visited. The flourishes are all Tonic and are attached using spray adhesive and then covered with black stickles.

Here you can see a little of the shimmer of the coloured panel.

And a TY card with a handmade tent card and more of the Tonic die set and a TY stamp (so old no maker on it)!

And another view which hopefully shows you some of the shimmer.

I shall be popping these over to the Snippets Playground. I believe there is some Baileys on offer over there (other drinks are available).

It just leaves me to say Thank You for calling by now and throughout 2013. It has been a pleasure reading your comments and returning the call. Here's to friends new and old that I have "met" during 2013 and I am looking forward to seeing what the Blogging World brings in 2014.

Monday, 30 December 2013

How are we all? Have we had a good Christmas then and was Santa kind to you all?

I had a real break from computers over Christmas and neither posted or visited so sorry if I missed you. I am now back in the office and back to reality so I shall visit you all later and over the coming few days. I promised you all I would share some of the Christmas cards I made whilst on my marathon session at my friend's so here they are.....

Using my new AO stamps. Love these. And of course some VOS in the ribbon and paper. The paper is also a very old snippet and now all gone.

Another similar style using some of the recycled paper from the album I made a while ago and some Snippet snowflakes cut with Spellbinders die.

This card I cased from my mate Bonnie. I made it in several colours and just love it. That braid you can see I have used is Very VOS! Not used it much until now.

And here is the last of today's showing. Made using the parts from the album.

I am just going to pop these over to the Snippets Playground and see what mischief has been going on over there now and see if I can help with the missing fence. I do hope the weather wasn't too horrendous for you over the Christmas. I know some poor peeps have missed the celebrations due to no electricity or flooding.

Class 9
I Was Wrong and He Was Right!--Real Life Testimonials.
Tuesdays at 6:00 PM Location to be determined.

Class 10
How to Parallel
Park In Less Than 20 Minutes Without an Insurance Claim.
Driving Simulations.
4 weeks, Saturday's noon, 2 hours.

Class 11

Learning to Live--How to Apply Brakes Without Throwing Passengers Through the Windshield.
Tuesdays at 7:00 PM, location to be determined

Class 12
How to Shop by Yourself.
Meets 4 weeks, Tuesday and Thursday for 2 hours beginning at 7:00 PM.
Send this to all your guy friends for thebest chuckle of their
day...
And to all your gal friends who have a sense of humor!

Sunday, 22 December 2013

Not long now until the Big Fat Chappie with a red suit comes to visit, with presents if you are good, but coal for those who are naughty. I am hoping for a tonne myself!! And some clementines would be welcome as we forgot them yesterday! Tee Hee!

I had an absolute ball with this one. My favourite so far! I just let it flow using the background that Linda showed us and snowflakes, but the rest was just fun!

Linda showed us the technique for the background which is HERE. I don't have the Distress Paint but I carried on and used Picket Fence Distress Stain instead of paint and it worked ok for me. The stamp I used is my Hero Arts holly stamp. This stamp is usually a stalwart for Christmas cards but I don't think I used it this year!!! I used a NBUS in the stamp! I bought these last year and so far I have only used the star before.

The sentiment is from the Artistic Outpost stamp with the TH snowflake stamp.

I coloured my Snowman with an assortment of Copics, DI (with water pen) and Distress Pens. The nose I blinged with Schtickles and the scarf with Glossy Accents. I punched a couple of holly leaves with a Snippet of metallic green card and for holly I used schtickes again. His body has been swooshed with Rock Candy Distress Stickles. So shimmery though I could not capture it on the photo as I hoped.

The Snowflakes were all cut from Spellbinders die and I added some schtickles in the centres, and that charm is one I bought in a gorgeous shop in Bath as well as the teeny tiny bell. I used some ribbon which I coloured with distress stain. The Let it Snow ribbon is VOS and so is that blue metallic cord. I used some wording from TH chit chat stickers.

I am slowly catching up. Finished all my wrapping tonight! Yeay! You should see my Rudolph beers!!! I will share later!

As I mentioned there is now more time to finish the challenge and if you have nothing else to do on Christmas afternoon after the dishes are done, why not sneak in to your craft area to join in. There is fabulous prize which is sponsored by Funkie Junkie Boutique.

As there are Snippets here by way of white cardstock and the green holly I am taking this over to the Snippets Playground. The Playhouse is looking very festive right now!

Friday, 20 December 2013

When you have to visit a public bathroom, you usually find a line of women, so you smile politely and take your place.Once it's your turn, you check for feet under the stall doors. Every stall is occupied. Finally, a door opens and you dash in, nearly knocking down the woman leaving the stall.

You get in to find the door won't latch. It doesn't matter, the wait has been so long you are about to wet your pants! The dispenser for the modern "seat covers"(invented by someone's Mom, no doubt) is handy, but empty.You would hang your purse on the door hook, if there was one, but there isn't - so you carefully, but quickly drape it around your neck, (Mom would turn over in her grave if you put it on the FLOOR!), yank down your pants, and assume " The Stance

In this position your aging, toneless (God I should have gone to the gym!!!) thigh muscles begin to shake. You'd love to sit down, but you certainly hadn't taken time to wipe the seat or lay toilet paper on it, so you hold "The Stance". To take your mind off your trembling thighs, you reach for what you discover to be the empty toilet paper dispenser.In your mind, you can hear your mother's voice saying, "Honey, if you had tried to clean the seat, you would have KNOWN there was no toilet paper!" Your thighs shake more. You remember the tiny tissue that you blew your nose on yesterday -the one that's still in your purse. (Oh yeah, the purse around your neck, that now, you have to hold up trying not to strangle yourself at the same time). That will have to do. You crumple it in the puffiest way possible. It's still smaller than your thumbnail.

Someone pushes your door open because the latch doesn't work.

The door hits your purse,which is hanging around your neck in front of your chest, and you and your purse topple backward against the tank of the toilet. "Occupied!" you scream, as you reach for the door, dropping your precious, tiny, crumpled tissue in a puddle on the floor, lose your footing altogether, and slide down directly onto theTOILET SEAT. It is wet of course.

You bolt up, knowing all too well that it's too late. Your bare bottom has made contact with every imaginable germ and life form on the uncovered seat because YOU never laid down toilet paper -not that there was any, even if you had taken time to try. You know that your mother would be utterly appalled if she knew, because, you're certain her bare bottom never touched a public toilet seat because, frankly, dear, "You just don't KNOW what kind of diseases you could get". By this time, the automatic sensor on the back of the toilet is so confused that it flushes, propelling a stream of water like a fire hose against the inside of the bowl that sprays a fine mist of water that covers your butt and runs down your legs and into your shoes.

The flush somehow sucks everything down with such force that you grab onto the empty toilet paper dispenser for fear of being dragged in, too. At this point, you give up. You're soaked by the spewing water and the wet toilet seat. You're e-x-h-a-u-s-t-e-d.You try to wipe with a gum wrapper you found in your pocket and then slink out inconspicuously to the sinks.You can't figure out how to operate the faucets with the automatic sensors, ..... so you wipe your hands with spit and a dry paper towel and walk past the line of women still waiting. You are no longer able to smile politely to them. A kind soul at the very end of the line points out a piece of toilet paper trailing from your shoe. (Where was that when you NEEDED it??) You yank the paper from your shoe, plunk it in the woman's hand and tell her warmly, "Here, you just might need this". As you exit, you spot your hubby, who has long since entered, used, and left the men's restroom.Annoyed, he asks, "What took you so long, and why is your purse hanging around your neck?" ........... This is dedicated to women everywhere who deal with a public restrooms (rest??? you've GOT to be kidding!!). It finally explains to the men what really does take us so long. It also answers their other commonly asked questions about why women go to the restroom in pairs. It's so the other gal can hold the door, hang onto your purse, and hand you Kleenex under the door! Send this to all women that understand what bonding in the bathroom is all about!A Friend Is Like A Good Bra...Hard to Find...Supportive....Comfortable ... Always Lifts You Up...Never Lets You Down, or Leaves You Hanging, And Is Always Close To Your Heart!!! Share with anyone who needs a good laugh!

Tuesday, 17 December 2013

Isn’t the countdown to Christmas
galloping pace now – or is it just me who feels that? Now that I have finished my cards and posted
them I am trying to play catchup with my 12 Tags of Christmas with Linda atFunkie Junkie. There is still time to
join in and Linda has kindly extended the time limit by another fortnight, but
I want to finish mine by the finished deadline as I know they will get
forgotten about and I want to make all 12 Tags before Christmas.

So here is Tag 7…..

First I cut a tag using my TH die
and embossed it with the Snowflake embossing folder by TH and then inked over
the tag with my favourite brown….Gathered Twigs DI. I cut out 3 tags using some paper left from
my Christmas Album and a Quickutz tag die and cut out the letters using Sizzix
dies using another Snippet left over from Saturday’s card marathon. I also used a little more of the same green
to cut the bottom layer of the Poinsettia.
The rest of the Poinsettia was cut from some SU Very Vanilla card (now
that I have found it!). The Poinsettia
was then stamped using TH text stamp.

I layered the Poinsettia and put
a large glob of cosmic shimmer adhesive in the middle and poured micro beads in
to the centre.

Next I cut out snowflakes using
Spellbinders die and more of the SU card, inked the edges and layered with the
mini tags before popping some linen ribbon on and placing on the tag. I cut some pine leaves, embossed them with several
layers of bronze embossing powder and then whilst they were still hot and molten
I poured on some Martha Stewart bronze glitter.
It didn’t stick all over but I kinda like that – a distressed look. I then layered these with the poinsettia
before placing it all on the tag.

I used the TH star rosette die to
cut just the star, stamped it with the text stamp and layered it with a chit
chat sticker and placed on the top right of the tag.

I felt it needed something at the
bottom so I had a rummage in my basket and came across this brown fringing – no
idea how long I have had this, then tied some ribbon around it and used the
same ribbon on the top of the tag. The
top was finished with some brown ribbon, also out of the basket, a wooden star
and some Funkie Junkie string NBUS.

There you have it. My favourite tag so far of the series and I
can see some Christmas cards for next year being made similarly.

Thanks for popping over. Remember that the Funkie Junkie Boutique are
sponsoring this challenge so if my tag has inspired you to have a go there is a
lovely voucher going to some lucky participant.

Also, I was asked once how my tags remain fairly flat. I told her that sometimes I use packaging for either Scotts porridge or Bakers dog food, so to prove it, here is the back. The inside is clean as they put the food inside a plastic bag and they are kinda like kraft and they ink beautifully!

Hello There!I nearly forgot to post this today. There I was visiting blogs and oops! Never mind I am here now with possibly my last Scrapbook Tuesday of 2013. Or maybe not!This is a little album I have made for my cousin Tracey to celebrate our trip to London and Tea at The Ritz.....

I have used a VOS Papermania book for which I just used two of the pages for covers. Covered with MME Tangerine paperstock. The pages were made using white thick cartridge paper.

There it is....The Ritz

You probably remember this photo as I scrapbooked it a little while ago.

The Theatre at which we saw Phantom of the Opera. Fabulous musical and a definite "Must See". In a former life I worked at a CD plant where we pressed this for my customer who gave me a copy, but only seeing it now.

Me in Trafalgar Square enjoying the sights. We walked back through town from the Theatre so that we could see the sights.

This is the next day and we walked down the River Thames and saw some sights. Every time I see the bridge here on TV I am heard to say "I walked across that"!There are more pictures (15 in total) but I will not bore you with them all as I may just do a 12x12 layout at some point!

Here are the trinkets I attached to the rings. A pleasurable two days with my cousin and one I hope to repeat in 2014. I have to say that I made myself a little album too whilst I was making this though the pages are slightly different and I haven't done any danglies yet either. I am taking this to show the girls at the Snippets Playground as it contains Snippets. We are all busy setting things up ready for the Playground Nativity Play next Sunday! Still not sure what part I am playing yet!Thanks for calling by. I just hope my cousin doesn't in case she sees this!Hettiexxx

Monday, 16 December 2013

Can you see a bit of a theme running through my cards? Yep - recycling and Snippets! I am hoping that by using all my Snippets I will be able to buy new stash without any guilt as there will be nothing left I may use!

The red checkered paper has been in my stash for ever! MME, Sizzix, Spellbinders, Bazzill, K&Co, Ranger and Artistic Outpost used in this card.

Papermania. Bazzill, Memory Box and Artistic Outpost in this one.

And finally, Tim Holtz, Ranger, Basic Grey and Spellbinders in this one. No idea where the pearls came from as the packaging left my control eons ago!

As usual I am popping these over to the Snippets Playground as they are all from my Snippets box. I went to my friend's on Saturday and had a bit of a marathon using ONLY Snippets and managed 20 cards. I will share those with you over the next few days. I really do need to count how many I have made this year. After Saturday I decided that was it. If I run out then they come from a sh-sh-sh-shop! Next year - more cards early on I think!

Thanks for calling by. I really do appreciate your comments. Now my cards are done I shall hopefully get round to visiting more blogs.

Tuesday, 10 December 2013

Guess who got so busy being Santa's Little Helper last night and forgot to post piccies up for today's ST? That and the fact that I decided to back up my mobile on the computer as I dropped it down the stairs the other night and smashed the face on it. If it has to go back I want to ensure I get all my December photos off it and my contact numbers. That took a fair while I can tell you!

Anyhoos I have some more Vietnam Album layouts which I can share with you....

This is the market in Dalat. It absolutely fascinated me with the colourful stalls of fruit and vegetables and the general hustle and bustle of life. I was very happy to wander round here (except when they were selling fresh fish! They were alive in those bowls but were bashed once they sold! Talk about "fresh") We found a great bar here where the chappie was very happy to have British people in his bar and kept plying us with drinks - more than we paid for I think!

This waterfall was absolutely stunning and tucked away off a busy main road that we had to go through some trees to get to. We could hear all the heavy traffic that sailed past oblivious to this beauty, but you could have been in another world. It was so calm and beautiful. The bottom photo shows that we are in tea and coffee growing country with all the rows of plantations.

This page makes me laugh. The lorries that are on the road would not comply with MOT standards here in the UK. Some are built out of a box of bits. This top left one was in a garage getting fuel and I was taking photos of it when the owner came out. I asked if I could sit in and he muttered under his breath ("stupid woman" or words to that effect I expect) and beckoned for me to hop in! It makes me giggle every time I see this photo. Can you guess how many children are on the moped bottom right? Three heads you can see and one riding on the chap's lap!

And here we are at the end of the cycle under the banner. We we all so happy to have taken part, tired and very fit. After a glass or two of bubbles we were pretty pickled too!

My certificate and medal to prove I had done it!!

One more post to show you Saigon and that will be it. I will try and get it finished before the New Year.

Thanks for calling by. I hope you have enjoyed seeing a little of my fabulous trip to Vietnam. I have certainly enjoyed sharing it with you all.

Sunday, 8 December 2013

Here we are again, Sunday night and having to pack away the weekend ready to go to work tomorrow! This weekend has gone whoosh as it flew past me!!

Anyhoo! Before I exchange my comfie clothes for my office suit I thought I would share some more Snippets Christmas cards with you.....

Love this carrollers die from Mr Holtz. I managed to borrow this from Lesley when she came up recently. Not a very good short unfortunately? But you get the drift! The holly was cut with an old XCut punch. Perfect size don't you think?

Another Snippet card using the pieces from the album which I made a few years ago, with some red card out of the Snippets box. Punched on the corners, some doodling, ribbon and pearls. The Sentiment is a stamp which has been embossed with red embossing powder. The reindeer was made from recycled chipboard, inked and them embossed with embossing powder several times before stamping in to get he snowflake effect.

And yet another recycled envelope with a new sentiment placed and one of my die of the year cuts!

That is it from me today. Off to bed now but before I go I shall pop over to the Snippets Playground for my horlicks (other night time drinks are available) and hopefully a bedtime story!